TV questions

I like plasma TV's. For the money, you get a nice refresh rate (usually 600hz vs 60hz, 120hz, or 240hz on the fancy LCD's) and the colors seem more vibrant. My eyes are super sensitive to low refresh rates, so having a high refresh rate is a must for me. I get headaches watching the lower refresh rate 60hz LCD TV's! Most every plasma on the market today has some sort of image refresh/shifting feature that makes burn-in a thing of the past. The only downside in my eyes is that they aren't so great in well lighted rooms and that they really only make them in 42''-up sizes.

I have a Panasonic Viera 42'' 1080p Plasma, and it was dirt cheap (in terms of new TV's) and the picture is unreal.

Generally speaking, is now the best time to buy, or after Xmas?

I own both a 42” Panasonic Plasma 1080 and a 32” Sony LCD 720. I can’t stand watching the LCD in the bedroom compared to the plasma. The colors are not a deep, black level sucks, and I’ve noticed the corners are slightly lighter then the rest of the picture.

SilverFleet wrote: Most every plasma on the market today has some sort of image refresh/shifting feature that makes burn-in a thing of the past.

while this feature helps, if you have a big image it never shifts enough to negate the possibility. but most plasmas burn-in resistance has been significantly improved over just say 6-7 years ago.

monoprice.com for cables, even their super thick mesh wrapped super unobtanium coated cables are pennies on the dollar when compared to what you can buy in a store. I just bought a TV 2 months ago, went with an LED backlit LCD, that's the way to go IMHO

alex wrote: Generally speaking, is now the best time to buy, or after Xmas?

Super Bowl time is a good time to buy, or after for good open box deals.

In reply to carguy123:

A lot of the difference in picture detail you are noticing comes down to properly adjusting the image. Definitely get Digital Video Essentials or something similar (I like DVE personally) and spend 1/2 hour or so setting up the TV - it should make a substantial difference. 3 years ago when I bought my Samsung plasma at Circuit City before they went bankrupt I went in on a slow Tuesday to compare sets. The salesdrone was pushing the Panasonic, and admittedly it looked better when I first walked in. I asked the guy if I could play with the sets for a while and proceeded to adjust brightness and contrast far away from the usual "torch mode" settings that TVs are set at in big boxes. The guy came back about 15 minutes later and agreed that the Samsung was now worlds better than the Panny, and I bought the Sammy (which was a couple hundred cheaper too).

Keep that in mind too when looking at sets in store - they haven't been tweaked to give the best picture, just the brightest and most over-saturated, so to say "HEY LOOK AT ME!!!!". Reminds me of an average-looking woman I know who wears the brightest CFM* red lipstick she can find - she sure draws attention in a way that she wouldn't if she were wearing a more natural tone.

• CFM = Come berkeley Me